Tom's Trials

Well, we did it! Another Ozzfest under our belts. If my calculations are correct that makes 8 years in a row that Kevin (my son) and I have attended the Prince Of Darkness' yearly tour. There was one main difference this year: No Ozzy. System Of A Down headlined the massive summer tour. Which was ok with my son; he's here more for the second stage. And this year I will have to agree with him. The second stage kicked the first stage's ass!

The day started like any other Ozzfest. Kevin would stop by around 8:00 am, hug and kiss his mom and then we would be off to our annual ritual. Kevin was feeling a little rough this morning. He went to see Uncle Ted Nugent the night before in Cleveland at his favorite venue: House Of Blues. He loved the show. Ted has a knack of making everyone have a good time regardless of how they are feeling when they get there. He struts around stage with his coyote tail and loin cloth laying down some of the heaviest licks you'll ever hear from a Les Paul guitar. I must have taught Kevin well because he told me he was the only one in his group that knew the words to every song. I'm so proud! Ted can get political as well. Kevin said he shot an arrow into a cardboard cutout of Osama Bin Laden. You gotta love it. This is what we talked about on the drive up.

We arrived at DTE around 10:00 am. According to our tickets the show started at 9:00. WRONG! We sat in the van and watched as a long line of metalheads stood outside waiting to get in. We also noticed an extreme increase in the number of Sheriffs patroling the parking lots for pre-concert partying. Luckily, Kevin and I decided not to drink a fifth of Jack Daniels before the show (we did it one year and now we have acid relux).

The first thing we noticed when we stepped out of the air-conditioned van was a sweltering wave of hot air. Little did we know was that this would be the coolest part of our day. We took our spot in the queue and as we always do proceeded to make fun of the people around us. There was one dude that had so much sunscreen on he it looked like he was covered in Crisco oil. Kevin's comment was " at least no one will be able to push him down in the mosh pit...they'll slide right off". I had to laugh at that one.

We finally get up to the entrance gates and now it's time for the ole strip tease. "Take everything out of your pockets. Please open your eyeglass case. Can you take your hat off for me?" It took me a good 10 minutes to put myself back together so I could walk toward the stage. Kevin and I walked across the tarmac to listen to the closing songs of A Life Once Lost. As they finished their set, we strolled over to the T-Shirt booth. We always do this to see what shirts they have and to determine how much money we need to put aside so we can get one. I got an Ozzfest shirt while Kevin opted for All That Remains.

We grabbed our first beer around 11:00 am. It went down hard because of the heat. After that we switched to water. No need to get heat exhaustion. We watched the entire second stage acts all afternoon. I could feel the back of my neck starting to sting. I looked at Kevin's arms and they were red as well. We couldn't wait to get out of the sun and into some shade.

We grabbed some pizza and pop and headed to our Pavilion seats. They weren't the greatest, but it was a place to sit down and re-energize. We had shade for about 45 minutes, then the sun came around and was shining right on our seats. We couldn't get away from it. We decided to walk around until the first stage acts got going.

Once the sun went down, our thirst went up. Now we decided it was time for some alcohol. Making up for lost time, we each double fisted and headed for our seats which were now in the shade. We struggled through Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed (we've seen them so many times). All we cared about was System Of A Down.

We had a nice buzz going when they came out. I told Kevin I thought the lead singer was on heroin because he hardly moved on stage. Regardless, they sounded really good.

All in all it was fun. I just wish it would have been a little cooler. Maybe next year.